Terraform vs. Ansible

[wiwa1978]

I'm still trying to get my head around whether I should use Ansible or Terraform for provisioning some (network) infrastructure. I know the default answer is to use TF for provisioning and to use Ansible for configuration. I also understand that most things that can be done with TF can be done with Ansible. Both tools are platform agnostic (through providers...) So I see a lot of similarities but would like to understand more the differences between both.

My use case is to create network resources (day 1 operation) and to continue to update them later on (in day 2) or to add resources later on (in day 2).

For this use case, I see one of the main advantages for TF that it keeps track of state where Ansible does not seem to do that. I see TF also more as a lifecycle management tool.

What could be other arguments to favor TF above Ansible for this use case?

[dougireton]

I think for AWS resources at least you are much better off with Terraform. Terraform supports new AWS services and features much more quickly than Ansible since many more folks are using TF to provision cloud infrastructure.